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Silk Road Languages | ||
Tags: Kazakh | Uzbek | Turkic languages | Travel | Turkish | Usefulness | Comprehension/understanding | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4770 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes  Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 9 of 13 31 July 2014 at 8:42am | IP Logged | ||
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@eyðimörk Your perspective is more valuable than mine, since you've actually been to the country, so I
guess I'm probably wrong about the relative positions of Georgian, Russian and English in Georgia. Still, the situation there is very different from Almaty, where it's easier to find someone who doesn't speak Kazakh than someone who doesn't speak Russian (English will likely be just as much of a hit-and-miss as what you described for Georgia). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 13 31 July 2014 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I have been to Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, but as far back as 2000. And I survived. It is my impression that the Armenians are more likely to know English than the rest of the bunch (because of the Armenian diaspora), but also that even a minimal amount of Russian will get you far. My knowledge of Russian was far below A0 at the time, but I still succeded in communicating with local people. As for people who speak English outside the capitals - well, don't count on it, but I suppose there are more now than in 2000.
One thing more: the Georgian alphabet may look intimidating, but it is fairly easy to learn - upper and lower case only differ in size, not in shape, and the number of letters is quite limited. Just transcribe a page or two and you have learnt that alphabet. But the Armenians have more letters AND different upper and lower case, so you will have much more trouble reading things in Armenia than in Georgia. Edited by Iversen on 31 July 2014 at 11:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 11 of 13 31 July 2014 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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kanewai, you might also find some of the views in the following CultureTalk interviews helpful even if they're from about 5 years ago or more.
- Multilingual Development (Azerbaijan) - Languages and Popular Culture (Georgia) - Language Issues (Kazakhstan) - Diversity (Kazakhstan) - Language Issues (Kyrgyzstan) - Multiethnic Society (Kyrgyzstan) - Tajik and Multilingualism (Tajikistan) - Language Diversity and Communication[ (Turkmenistan) - Adjusting to Turkmen Life (Turkmenistan) - Language Diversity (Uzbekistan 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7154 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 12 of 13 03 August 2014 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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One more link from the archives...
Useful Languages in Central Asia 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5234 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 13 of 13 03 August 2014 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | ||
That quote made me think of Mark Twain: “In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language.” :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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